So we finally finished all of MLP:FiM. All four seasons. I haven’t seen Equestria Girls and have no interest in seeing how to make a bunch of hypersexualized dolls out of horses, so I can’t comment on that (other than, I guess, that dig there).
There’s a level where I don’t mind MLP:FiM. I like that Tesfa can watch a show filled with differentiated females who each have diverse interests (reading, animals, fashion, sports, parties). I like that there is silliness because I like Tesfa to know that she can be silly.
But..
I saw this in either This Film is Not Yet Rated or an article about the ratings system (can’t remember exactly) about a violent movie that, without editing, the director(s?) kept submitting and resubmitting to the ratings board until the reviewers were desensitized to the violence and gave it a lower rating than they were going to give it initially. Having spent, by this point, full days of my life watching MLP:FiM, I feel like that: desensitized. The first episode, I thought Rainbow Dash was so snarky, which reminded me of an article (that again I can’t find) about what poor role models Disney live-action shows were, where the characters are super-sarcastic and over-the-top, rather than genuine and caring. Then Zecora. Is anything on the show as problematic as the tokenism/Magical Negro-ism of Zecora? But, having seen the episodes so many times now, those things, and others, which stopped me in my tracks the first time through, they’re just background now. I ignore them and move on. That isn’t good.
(And also, in Season Four, Pinkie Pie goes from being ebullient to simply manic, to the extent that I would actually be worried about her mental health, if she were a person and not a cartoon pony.)
But, what’s been bothering me now, more so than bratty behaviour and racism, is Twilight Sparkle. The end of season three, she becomes a princess. Uggggggg. The show already has three princesses. It’s not like there was a dearth of princesses that the show wanted to address so that they could get a toehold in on the princess-market. The pro is that Twilight got to be a princess through hard work, not through marrying in and becoming just smiles and waves and flawless hair, bland with zero personality (sorry Kate, but you know it’s the truth). But still, why? Why does children’s entertainment need to give me another princess? Why couldn’t Twilight have become a scientist or a wizard or the mayor or something that wasn’t princessy?
My only princess consolation is that I have now drilled it into Tesfa’s head that you can’t just be a princess. You have to be a princess who does something. So she is a princess who saves animals. She says I am a princess who spends too much time on the computer. Geoff, luckily, has escaped being regnified, which is a word I made up because I am a princess so I can.
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Fascinating. Zecora is pretty terrifying (at least from reading the information from the very helpful link you provided), and the princessification dynamic is questionable too… seems like even the shows which are trying to be progressive (as you say – lots of differentiated female characters) still fail in some pretty basic ways. Thank you for providing me with enough information about MLP:FiM so that I don’t have to sit through it myself! (and will know a bit of what Tesfa and other little girls in my life are talking about when they mention it)
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You could still watch it. It’s on Netflix 😉
I am so conflicted about MLP. Tesfa likes it, and I think it’s important for her to develop liking things on her own, and there are shows that are far worse, but I just wish there were old episodes of Square One we could watch together instead, something like that. Or that we could kick-start her reading and read books together instead. Everything about childrearing is a compromise. I am compromised. It sucks.